Code-named finale scenes

Code names have been used by the producers and writers of Lost to refer to season finale cliffhanger scenes, often containing plot twists. The code-named scenes are left out of the scripts for all but essential cast and crew.

The code names follow two patterns: the first two were both types of breads and had no relation to the final scenes; the second two were odd phrases that initially seem like non sequiturs until seen within context of the final scene.

While not a literal reference to the final scene, the code name shares two similarities with the feeling and mood of the episode's final scene. First, the scene was surprising like a snake in a mailbox; and second, it was a plot twist, being that the audience had up to that point been accustomed to seeing stories told only in real-time or in flashback.

The code name may be a reference to the cult Synanon, which attempted to assassinate an enemy by putting a live rattlesnake in his mailbox. The cult was based in Santa Monica, CA, where Bad Robot Productions is located.

Season 5 naming process

On the March 19, 2009 Official Lost Podcast, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse invited fans of the show to submit their own code names for the final scene of the Season 5 finale. The two producers nominated their thirteen favorites [3] from a shortened list of best submissions narrowed down by Official Lost Podcast producer Kris White, and podcast listeners voted for their favorites by e-mail.

"Spin Drift Beck", from Dallas, Texas, submitted the winning title, "The Fork in the Outlet". Matt Mitovich revealed in the TV Guide podcast that Lindelof and Cuse also chose "Invisibul Dinasaur Hed" [sic] as the number one rejected entry.[4] A campaign had been run by participants of Lostpedia's forums to make this meme the winning name. [5]

Season 6: "Sun and Jin's Wedding"

The Shephards.

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse stated the Season 6 finale, also the series finale, would not have an official code-named scene because they didn't believe there was a single scene that lended itself to being named. [6] Actor Jorge Garcia stated in his March 31, 2010 Geronimo Jack's Beard podcast that the final act of the episode was left out of his script.

The characters come together to move on.

The scene that was withheld from every script (except those of the participating actors in the scene and a select group of crew members) was not the final scene, but rather the penultimate. Only actors Matthew Fox and John Terry were privy to the information disclosed within the scene. It consisted of Christian Shephard helping his son Jack realize that they were dead. This revealed to the audience that the flash sideways, instead of being a new timeline created by a nuclear bomb (as the audience was led to believe), were the characters' afterlife.

The actual final scene, when the characters reunite in the church to move on, was originally described as "Sun and Jin's Wedding" in call sheets and other related crew documents to hide the truth of the scene. (Geronimo Jack's Beard)